Chapter 1048: Gruish Immortal Skill

Atop the black lake were the white-robed immortal adepts, seated cross-legged as they pursued enlightenment. None moved, and none reacted at all to Xu Qing’s arrival. The white Immortal Skills Hall was just as still and silent.

Xu Qing hefted his Imperial Sovereign command medallion as he hovered in midair for about three breaths of time. Then, his face completely calm, he said, “Before being summoned to meet Grand Emperor Devilbird, my Imperial Sovereign emphasized to me that, since he sadly couldn’t come in person, I should represent him to visit the Immortal Skills Hall. My task is to commit to memory everything that I can study, so that I can explain the details to him later.

“If the Immortal Skills Hall doesn’t mind, then I, Sir Blood Dust, will seek enlightenment on my own. As for the Imperial Sovereign, he will come back at a later date.”

Having said that, Xu Qing kept his gaze fixed on the Immortal Skills Hall. He knew that he couldn’t just casually barge into a place like this. If calling on the name of Lu Lingzi didn’t get him inside, then he would have to think of some other strategy to gain entrance. After all, him coming here was a clear case of

taking action when borrowing a tiger’s skin

.

What was more, Lu Lingzi had made his reasons for coming very clear at the seventh Imperial Sovereign mountain. It was that event, plus the fact that Lu Lingzi had seized the initiative, which resulted in him being summoned by the Grand Emperor. As a result, all of the top experts among the western Devilbirds had a fairly good understanding of this new Imperial Sovereign.

Therefore, it was no surprise that, after a long moment passed... the main entrance of the Immortal Skills Hall slowly opened. A young man and woman walked out, both of them clad in long, white robes. In the lead was the man, who was quite handsome. He was followed by the woman, who was very beautiful. The moment they appeared, the immortal adepts all opened their eyes and bowed their heads respectfully.

Xu Qing looked at them.

The young man looked up at Xu Qing.

“Normally speaking, no one may seek enlightenment of immortal skills other than immortal adepts. But since you’re here on the orders of an Imperial Sovereign, we will give you a special, one-time authorization. That said, anyone who seeks to learn immortal skills must first experience five deadly tribulations. You might live through them, or you might die.

“Pick a spot anywhere on Immortal Cleaving Lake, sink down beneath the water, and wait for the five tribulations. That will be your chance to study the immortal skill.”

The young man stopped speaking and stared coldly at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he looked down at Immortal Cleaving Lake.

“What’s wrong,” the young man asked coolly. “Scared?”

Xu Qing studied his surroundings. Then, a moment later, he shot down to the lake, settled onto the surface, then sank beneath the water.

When he was gone, the surrounding immortal adepts exchanged glances. Some of them shook their heads. Some of them sneered.

“This Sir Blood Dust must be feeling suicidal.”

“It’s impossible to say how many people have been buried at the bottom of the lake after failing to pass the five tribulations. Even if he somehow manages to stay alive, he won’t succeed at the task.”

With that, everyone looked away and paid no further heed to what was happening. Although Sir Blood Dust had become very famous lately, the people here were more concerned with gaining enlightenment of their immortal skill.

As for the young man who had come out of the Immortal Skills Hall, he continued to sneer. In contrast, the young woman seemed apprehensive.

“Elder Brother, our Master went wandering and hasn’t returned. And that new Imperial Sovereign from the eastern Devilbirds has really taken the spotlight lately. What’s more, this Sir Blood Dust is an extraordinary individual who made a name for himself in the last half a month. Someone like that, with a background like he has, should really just be allowed to study our immortal skill. Is there really a need to make him go through such a dangerous trial? [1]

“Immortal Cleaving Lake contains the Five Dogs Heavenly World. People who go in there rarely come out alive, and even if they do, they don’t ever succeed at gaining enlightenment. After all... gaining enlightenment of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals requires a special ceremony.” She sighed.

The young man’s eyes were just as cold as before. “I warned him of the danger. Everyone here bore witness. He went in despite knowing all that. I didn’t force him. If he wants to court death, it has nothing to do with me.”

With that, he flicked his sleeve and walked back into the Immortal Skills Hall.

The young woman looked at the surface of the lake and shook her head. She knew that it was pointless to say anything further, and thus, she simply went back to the Immortal Skills Hall.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing was under the surface of Immortal Cleaving Lake. So far, he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. The water was pitch black, but it didn’t contain mutagen. Instead, there was something lively about it. However, it restricted divine will, making it impossible for someone to use divine will to see the whole lake at one time.

After taking a moment to check his surroundings, Xu Qing sent his divine will out to search the area. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, his gaze hardened.

By means of divine will, he had noticed that there were a host of corpses on the bottom of the lake.... The more he looked around, the more corpses he saw. In the end, he came to the conclusion that there were several thousand of them. They included the bodies of men and women, old and young. All had their eyes open, and those eyes were pure white. So was their skin and hair. As for the looks on their faces, they were gruish expressions that were strange mixtures of crying and laughter.

What was more, Xu Qing realized that there was a huge magical symbol on the bottom of the lake. It was white, and it took up more than half of the lake. It pulsed with an ancient sensation, and what was most strange of all was the fact that... the corpses were part of it.

Xu Qing looked at it for a while. Then he approached cautiously. As he got close, he examined it with divine will, taking in the entire thing a few times over. He did not gain any enlightenment from doing so. After about ten breaths of time passed, his eyes shone with determination.

Continuing to get even closer, he ultimately stepped onto the symbol. When he did, he shivered mentally. Feeling like he was sinking, he watched as his vision blurred. When it cleared again, he wasn’t on the lake floor.

He was in the sky! It was blue and full of fluffy white clouds. Down beneath him, there was no land. Instead, there was a 300-meter wide white thread that snaked off into the distance. It looked almost like a white hair that was countless times larger than normal.

Xu Qing didn’t blindly take action. Instead, he sent his divine will out to examine the white thread. It didn’t take much observation for him to realize that the white thread was actually made up of magical symbols. Each of them looked exactly alike. It was the very same magical symbol from the bottom of the lake.

This has to relate to the ‘five tribulations’ that the young man was talking about. He obviously didn’t have good intentions. However... I’m here, so I shouldn’t let some malicious intentions get in my way.

He didn’t immediately start walking along the white thread. Instead, he looked at it, all while the authority of Six Thieves Deceive Life glittered in his eyes.

It is not possible to live eternally thanks to the six thieves that deceive life. The eyes deceive sight. The ears deceive hearing. The nose deceives smelling. The mouth deceives taste. The body deceives labor. The mind deceives thought. Thus, all is lost.

His dao lineament stirred as the Six Thieves immortal skill arose within him. Threads of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures spread out around him.

Six Thieves and Five Dogs. Together as one....

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he started walking along the white thread. Thanks to the Six Thieves authority, he could sense everything around him clearly. Meanwhile, the information his Eldest Brother had given him about Five Dogs Cleave Immortals swirled in his mind.

The five dogs are stinginess, greed, foolishness, depravity, and austerity.

The inability to abandon things. That is called stinginess. Having insatiable desire. That is called greed. Renouncing the rules of life. That is called foolishness. Arguing without understanding the facts. That is called depravity. Renouncing the three paths of hell before attaining lifelessness. That is called austerity.

As for the seven banes and eight evils, Yue Dong and her Junior Sister didn’t really understand them.

This particular immortal skill can be summed up in this way... the stingy dog cleaves to a place and loses treasure; the greedy dog cleaves to a place and is bound; the foolish dog cleaves to a place and falls into death; the depraved dog cleaves to a place and falls into hell; the austere dog cleaves to a place and forever loses the body.

He thought while sensing, while advancing. However, at a certain point, he stopped walking. The threads of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures around him were vibrating violently, almost as if to block his path. Except... there was nothing in front of him. A moment later, those threads went back to normal.

Keeping his guard up, he looked around. Yet no matter how he studied his surroundings, he couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. After confirming that there was nothing blocking his path, he frowned and then kept moving. After taking only three steps, his expression darkened.

No. Six Thieves Deceive Life creates threads of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures. I can’t be experiencing this sensation for no reason. So what’s the problem here...?

His frown deepened, and he put more thought into the situation. However, nothing occurred to him. Unfortunately, the uneasy sensation wouldn’t go away. Instead of continuing on his way, he stayed put and thought back to everything he had done up to this point.

That was when he realized that the strange reaction from the threads of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures actually came when he thought about the information his Eldest Brother had given him.

He immediately thought back to those same things. A moment later, his gaze sharpened.

There’s something wrong with those memories of mine....

There was something strange about them, yet he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was. Therefore, it was without any hesitation that he opened the eye of Hellfei! That eye could penetrate illusory obstacles!

The moment he opened the eye, he realized what was going on. In his memories, Yue Dong had a Junior Sister. But the real Yue Dong

didn’t

have a Junior Sister![2]

Lan Yao wasn’t actually Yue Dong’s Junior Sister!

However, that Junior Sister obscured Xu Qing’s sensations, merging with them and becoming part of his memories. In fact, she even pierced all of the memory images he had of Yue Dong. When he thought back to meeting Feng Lintao, Lan Yao, and Yue Dong for the first time, his memories contained a clear image of a fourth person. Yue Dong’s Junior Sister. Later, when he and his Eldest Brother captured Yue Dong, they also took her Junior Sister captive. However, because of the soulsearch, Yue Dong’s Junior Sister ended up dying.

That memory caused Xu Qing’s pupils to constrict. He was sure that this memory was real. And yet, Hellfei’s eye was telling him something else. It was telling him that the memory came from somewhere else!

In that case, who exactly put a memory of Yue Dong’s Junior Sister into me?

His expression became even more grim as he realized that, even though Hellfei’s eye was telling him that the memory was false, he actually couldn’t get rid of it. Eyes flashing coldly, he activated the godly authority of fate within him.

It turned into a carving knife that could pierce fate. And with that knife, he slashed at the memory of Yue Dong’s Junior Sister. A loud crunching sound rang out. The image of the Junior Sister shattered.

And yet, Xu Qing’s heart only continued to sink. And that was because, the moment the image of Yue Dong’s Junior Sister shattered, that memory became a withered white hair that connected to half of his other memories. It seemed to just spread through countless other memories. It was a very gruish sight and sensation.

It was like looking at a completed painting, only to look closer and find that a bunch of white hairs had been dropped into it. That was when one of the descriptions of Five Dogs Cleave Immortals echoed in his mind.

The inability to abandon things. That is called stinginess... the stingy dog cleaves to a place and loses treasure.

These white hairs were like a door being opened in a sealed secret chamber.

The door was circular. When it opened, white light spilled out. It was like a white eyeball.

The stingy dog... cleaves to a place!

1. The ‘wandering’ being done by the Master isn’t just random wandering. The specific word in Chinese is the word used to describe the type of wandering that monks would do for religious purposes. ☜

2. Erniu originally described the Five Dogs skill in

chapter 1033

. In that chapter, the wording is slightly different, and there is no mention of the Junior Sister. ☜